Re: What GSE-Reactive Really Needs to Make

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

barana wrote:
> so 650,000 units sold makes it a dud?
> u seem a little negative,mick

I didn't know the sales figures for the C=64 "joystick".
My conclusion was based on its short time on the retail
market in the U.S., and how rapidly it moved to the
"clearance" table.

The C=64 was always a big seller outside the U.S., and
perhaps the same was true of the "joystick" version.

Hopefully, it made some money, and will encourage other
"reprises" of classic platforms--but the "joystick"
remains a classic game platform, not a computing platform.
I would expect it to recruit a minimal number of new
members to the C=64 community.

A similar device recreating an Apple II, though it might
cause a little more Space Invaders to be played, would
have a negligible effect on increasing the amount of new
hardware or software in the Apple world.

The key strength of the Apple II was the instant accessibility
it provided both to software creation and to hardware extension.
Neither of these characteristics are likely to reappear in a
mass market remake, since the mass market's aspirations for
computing have moved on (for better or worse).

My "negativity" is directed toward the false hopes raised
by various pipe dreams about a market resurgence in the
Apple II world.  Time marches on.

-michael

Music synthesis for 8-bit Apple II's!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it is seriously underused."